Today we read about St Marie of the Incarnation in the book In Caelo et in Terra. She was a wife and mother, but felt God calling her into religious life. When her husband passed away, she felt God calling her to become a nun and missionary. So she made the difficult and easily misunderstood decision to entrust her 12 year old son to the care of her sister, and she entered religious life.
God called her to travel as a missionary to the Americas, where she opened schools for French girls and Native American girls. She incredibly learned five different Native American languages and taught in all of them. Because of her obedience, hundreds of people in North America became Catholic and their lives were greatly enriched. Her son went on to become a Benedictine, following her example of commitment to religious life. You can read more about her here.
You can imagine what a hard decision it was to give up her son and become a missionary. And even looking back from modern times, it's easy to judge her decision as a bad one and think of her as a poor mother. But God calls us to put Him first, even before our family. If she hadn't obeyed His calling, not only would the hundreds of people in North America not have had her example and love to bring them into the church, but her son would not have had the example of devotion to religious life to inspire him to also serve Jesus with total abandon.
What is God calling you to do today? Do you have the courage to do it? If not, ask Him. He's generous that way.
God, thanks for the difficult and inspiring example of this mother. St Marie of the Incarnation, pray for us.
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